MavEtJu's Distorted View of the World

With the move to Australia I have learned a particular thing about
my brain: I can't remember names without seeing them written down.
This presents itself mostly when watching television or movies: The
names of persons (an overal problem), but also about medical issues
(Skully in the X files, House), city names and star systems (Star
Trek :-).

Last week I was reminded about this when discussing the latest
episode of The United States of Tara: I didn't kow the names of any
of the characters except for Tara. I know there is a husband, a son
and a daughter (and on the side line a sister, a fast-food shop-manager,
a boyfriend of the son and a psychiator), but I don't know any of
their names. Neither the name of any of the personages Tara transforms
in (except for Buck, which is a name I saw in the subtitles of Kill
Bill).

I have seen numerous episode of The Bill (UK Police series), but I
won't be able to name any of the characters in there. I have seen
numerous episodes of House but can't name his colleagues or female
boss.

This issue has never been a problem when I lived in the Netherlands,
because all the foreign television series and movies are subtitled.
So I know all the names of the people in Star Trek and Babylon 5,
and I know part of them in Battlestar Galactica (Starbuck, Apollo
(is he in the new one?), Boomer and Adama because they were in the
old series which I saw with subtitles) but the name of the president
or the second in command on the Galactica or the name of the scientist
are all unknown to me.

That didn't mean that having the BBC was useless for me, thanks to
the subtitles on the Teletext system "behind" the broadcast I was
able to follow everything.

So, what does this leave for me in Australia? Not much, there is
no Teletext system on the normal channels and there is only one
channel, SBS, which has subtitled movies and series (because they
are non-english). Before the re-run of every episode of Dr Who and
Torchwood I read up on the TARDIS Wikimedia website to make sure I
know who is who this time.

At least I know the limitations and the workarounds, but it's very
tricky sometimes!

Just try to imagine words written, in the air or on a wall. When I was a child, the only way to make sure I remember something important in the morning, was just to “write” it with my finger on the wall (finger clean, no traces left :D). I don’t know why that worked.